Science

Lawmakers, Schools Finding Ways to Push Computer Science

By Liana Loewus — January 27, 2014 1 min read
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Kentucky lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow students to take computer science to satisfy a foreign-language requirement.

According to the Courier-Journal, the bill’s sponsor, Republican state Sen. David Givens, cited low numbers of college students graduating with computer-science degrees despite high demand in the market and high starting salaries. A recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that the average salary for class of 2013 graduates who went into computer science was $59,100.

The legislation has passed the Kentucky Senate’s education committee by a 10-1 vote. We’ll keep tabs on where this bill goes from here.

And in other high school computer-science news, the 263,000-student Broward County district in Florida is adding curriculum and courses on computer programming at 38 schools. The Sun Sentinel reports that the expansion is a result of a partnership with Code.org. Ninety middle and high school teachers, mostly in math, science, and technology, will receive computer-science training this spring.

For more on the ways schools are expanding efforts to teach computer programming, see this piece by my colleague Michelle Davis.

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A version of this news article first appeared in the Curriculum Matters blog.